With a united opposition showing no signs of supporting the contentious Land Acquisition Bill, the National Democratic Alliance government appears to have had second thoughts about pushing through the legislation in the Rajya Sabha in the first half of the ongoing budget session.
If the Bill replacing the Land Acquisition Ordinance is not approved by March 20, when Parliament goes into recess for a month, the ordinance will lapse and will have to be promulgated again. All the ordinances promulgated by the government have to be replaced by Bills by April 5.
In such a situation, the government will have two choices: extend the first half of the session to allow the Bills to be passed or prorogue the House as ordinances cannot be promulgated when Parliament is sitting.
Several objections
The government was able to get the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha earlier this week after it moved nine amendments to it in an effort to placate the Opposition and NDA partners, who had also raised strong objections to the legislation.
However, the government faces a major challenge in pushing the Bill through in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling alliance is outnumbered by the Opposition.
Realising that it is in a hopeless minority here and the opposition is unlikely to drop its disagreement to the Bill, the government has decided to go slow on it. Although the Bill has been listed in next week’s agenda in the Rajya Sabha, it is not expected to be taken up.
NDA insiders told Scroll.in that the government had reworked its priorities and decided to focus instead on securing approvals for its budgetary proposals, the real purpose of this session. “Time is short…the first half of the session ends on March 20 and our first priority is to ensure the passage of the budget,” said a senior BJP minister.
Other priorities
As it is, the debates on the rail and general budget are moving at snail’s pace. The Lok Sabha was forced to abandon the discussion on the budget on Friday when the opposition insisted that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley be present. Jaitley is out of the country and will be back by Monday.
The government also wants to use this time to reach out to the opposition once again and also dispel the public perception that farmers land will be acquired forcibly and handed over to industrialists.
“There has been a major communication failure on our part…we have not been able to explain the salient features of the [land] Bill to the farmers who have decided that this legislation in not in their interest,"admitted a senior BJP minister.
Faulty consultation process
He said the NDA government failed to consult any farmer’s organisations when the legislation was being amended and had spoken only to industrialists and chief ministers who were all of the view that the existing Bill would impede development.
As a result, even affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh like the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch protested the changes in the legislation. It was at their behest that the government moved amendments to the Bill. NDA partners like the Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena were also apprehensive about the impact of the Bill. While the government was able to convince the Akalis of the need to support it, another ally, the Shiv Sena, is not on board. Sena MPs abstained during the vote on the Bill in the Lok Sabha.
Given the prevailing mood, Parliamentary Affairs minister M.Venkaiah Naidu called a meeting of all ministers this morning to urge them to “educate the people” about the Bill and remove misconceptions about it.
An adamant Opposition is insisting that the Bill should be referred to a parliamentary panel for a thorough scrutiny since the NDA government has diluted the original Bill passed unanimously when the United Progressive Alliance government was in power.
The Opposition has particularly objected to the deletion of the provision on social impact assessment study and the clause requiring the consent of farmers whose land is being acquired. The Opposition is insisting on the restoration of these two clauses which, it maintains, are the “core of the Bill”.
The government was made aware of its vulnerability in the Rajya Sabha when it faced difficulties in passing even less controversial legislations like the coal, land and mines Bills.
Working out a compromise
The Opposition forced the ruling alliance to refer these to select committees for scrutiny. The two panels are to submit their reports by March 18 but opposition members in the committees was able to delay them by insisting that they needed more time to study them. The government believes it will have to give in to the Opposition on the land Bill to get their cooperation for the passage of the other matters.
There is a chance that the Opposition may still relent on the coal and mines Bills as the Trinamool Congress and the Biju Janata Dal do not have many major objections to them, but they are all together as far as the land Bill is concerned.
In fact, the padyatra planned by the Trinamool Congress next week to protest against the land Bill from Parliament House to the Rashtrapati Bhavan has got support from other opposition parties like the Janata Dal (U), Aam Admi Party and the Congress. The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are also being persuaded to join the march.
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If the Bill replacing the Land Acquisition Ordinance is not approved by March 20, when Parliament goes into recess for a month, the ordinance will lapse and will have to be promulgated again. All the ordinances promulgated by the government have to be replaced by Bills by April 5.
In such a situation, the government will have two choices: extend the first half of the session to allow the Bills to be passed or prorogue the House as ordinances cannot be promulgated when Parliament is sitting.
Several objections
The government was able to get the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha earlier this week after it moved nine amendments to it in an effort to placate the Opposition and NDA partners, who had also raised strong objections to the legislation.
However, the government faces a major challenge in pushing the Bill through in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling alliance is outnumbered by the Opposition.
Realising that it is in a hopeless minority here and the opposition is unlikely to drop its disagreement to the Bill, the government has decided to go slow on it. Although the Bill has been listed in next week’s agenda in the Rajya Sabha, it is not expected to be taken up.
NDA insiders told Scroll.in that the government had reworked its priorities and decided to focus instead on securing approvals for its budgetary proposals, the real purpose of this session. “Time is short…the first half of the session ends on March 20 and our first priority is to ensure the passage of the budget,” said a senior BJP minister.
Other priorities
As it is, the debates on the rail and general budget are moving at snail’s pace. The Lok Sabha was forced to abandon the discussion on the budget on Friday when the opposition insisted that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley be present. Jaitley is out of the country and will be back by Monday.
The government also wants to use this time to reach out to the opposition once again and also dispel the public perception that farmers land will be acquired forcibly and handed over to industrialists.
“There has been a major communication failure on our part…we have not been able to explain the salient features of the [land] Bill to the farmers who have decided that this legislation in not in their interest,"admitted a senior BJP minister.
Faulty consultation process
He said the NDA government failed to consult any farmer’s organisations when the legislation was being amended and had spoken only to industrialists and chief ministers who were all of the view that the existing Bill would impede development.
As a result, even affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh like the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch protested the changes in the legislation. It was at their behest that the government moved amendments to the Bill. NDA partners like the Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena were also apprehensive about the impact of the Bill. While the government was able to convince the Akalis of the need to support it, another ally, the Shiv Sena, is not on board. Sena MPs abstained during the vote on the Bill in the Lok Sabha.
Given the prevailing mood, Parliamentary Affairs minister M.Venkaiah Naidu called a meeting of all ministers this morning to urge them to “educate the people” about the Bill and remove misconceptions about it.
An adamant Opposition is insisting that the Bill should be referred to a parliamentary panel for a thorough scrutiny since the NDA government has diluted the original Bill passed unanimously when the United Progressive Alliance government was in power.
The Opposition has particularly objected to the deletion of the provision on social impact assessment study and the clause requiring the consent of farmers whose land is being acquired. The Opposition is insisting on the restoration of these two clauses which, it maintains, are the “core of the Bill”.
The government was made aware of its vulnerability in the Rajya Sabha when it faced difficulties in passing even less controversial legislations like the coal, land and mines Bills.
Working out a compromise
The Opposition forced the ruling alliance to refer these to select committees for scrutiny. The two panels are to submit their reports by March 18 but opposition members in the committees was able to delay them by insisting that they needed more time to study them. The government believes it will have to give in to the Opposition on the land Bill to get their cooperation for the passage of the other matters.
There is a chance that the Opposition may still relent on the coal and mines Bills as the Trinamool Congress and the Biju Janata Dal do not have many major objections to them, but they are all together as far as the land Bill is concerned.
In fact, the padyatra planned by the Trinamool Congress next week to protest against the land Bill from Parliament House to the Rashtrapati Bhavan has got support from other opposition parties like the Janata Dal (U), Aam Admi Party and the Congress. The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are also being persuaded to join the march.
